Hand me down organization January 28, 2013

I am sooooooooo lucky to have a sister in law and an aunt (both on my husbands side) that have boys that are older then mine. My sister in law has four boys ranging in age from 11 – 2 and my aunt has a 7 year old. They have given me more bags of hand me downs then I can even count. I have clothes ranging from New Born to a child’s size 8. That being said I have to have some way to keep them organized so they get used. I was bad about this at first and missed three bags of 2T clothes.

After moving into our house we found out that our basement floods – A LOT!! There is a wet bar in the basement that we never use due to the flooding. It now has all of my hand me downs boxed and labeled. I love it I know where everything is.

Not the best looking photo be this is downstairs and other people don’t go down there. My clothes lines are in the way of the photo too – Oh well. I put on each box what size the clothes are and any other info that would help. I also put HAS ROOM on the boxes if there is still room for more clothes. I then have them on the bar in the order that I will need them.

 

You might also wounder where do I get all of the boxes? I save all of the empty diaper and wipe boxes we have. I also save good boxes from when we get gifts (like the Vitamix box – got it from my mom LOVE HER). The other boxes are from the local super market. I know the manager so he saves them for me. All you need to do is call and see if they have boxes that you can come pick up. Free storage!

 

Saving Money On Clothes – End of season clearance

We have been lucky and not had much snow this year. In fact it was all most 70 today. This time most years we have about 4-6 in of snow on the ground. Over the weekend I got to go to Marshells and hit the clearance rack. I love the clearance rack and Marshells is one of my favorite (Target is another one I love). My 3 year old has several heavy coats but has no snow pants. I was so happy when I found a heavy coat AND snow pants for $10.

The best part is he will be able to where them for two years. The pants are adjustable and he is a skinny thing (for dance class he has 24 month shorts that I got for $2 on clearance at Target).   It pays to take the time to check the clearance section you never know what you are going to fine. Two weeks ago I got two NFL jerseys for my son for $3 each.  Talk about some major savings and a happy kid!

Saving money on cloths – Hand me downs January 26, 2013

I love hand me downs! I have two boys three years old and a new born. I am very lucky that my sister and law had 4 boys so I get lots of hand me downs from her. I also have hand me downs from my husbands aunt (she is only 7 years older then us) and she has a 7 year old son. These two ladies, and some friends from time to time,  keep my boys dressed. Today my mother in law dropped off three large bags of clothes.

 

Not the best photo of the bags I know. There where clothes from New Born all the way up to Small Child. Because all of the clothes we have gotten I have had to spend a lot of time organizing them. I will do a post on that soon.

Busy Bag – Spice Container fine motor skills January 13, 2013

This is a super simple busy bag to make.  All you need is an empty (and clean) spice container and some pipe cleaners. Simply cut the pipe cleaners so they will fit inside the spice container so your child can put them through the holes in the top.  My three year old still likes to play with this some. He can take the lid off and put it back on so he will do it over and over. I plan on keeping this in my diaper bag when the baby is ready for it so I always have something for him to do.

 

Complaining pays off January 12, 2013

Last Sunday I was upset when I went to get some formula that I thought I was going to be able to use some coupons on and then get a $15 rebate on. Over all it was going to be a good deal. I was very annoyed when I found out that the formula I needed did not qualify because it did not come in the right size. The container of the gentle formula was about and oz shy to use the coupons and get the rebate. Long story short I sent the company and email ( that turned out to be much harder then it should have been so I told them about that too). I sent the email on a Sunday night, got a response email on Monday that they would be sending me some formula and some coupons, and by Wednesday the formula was here. They where not joking then sent two cases of formula. I got 8 full size containers of formula. The formula is about $24 a container so I got $192 of formula for free!

Three things that have saved me time, money, and sanity January 9, 2013

We all went back to school for a full week this week. This is my first full week back in four months and we now have a new born to add to the mix. In order to try and make things a bit more stream line I have found three things that help a lot.

1. Make all of the sack lunches on Sunday. This keeps us from spending money on school lunch (or the vending machine) and all I have to do is put the pre made items in every ones lunch box the night before. It took me an hour on Sunday night but I have 19 sack lunches ready to go! (I know that is one short for three people and a five day week but my daughter likes to get the school lunch on Wednesday.)

2. Make my breakfast for the week on Sunday. I don’t ever have time to eat in the morning before I leave. I have always eaten in the car or once I get to school (not the best but better then not eating at all). This means I have to pack breakfast. This week I took 30 min and made my self 5 egg breakfast sandwiches that I wrapped in a paper towel and then in foil. I stashed them in the bottom of the fridge door so all I have to do it grab one, unwrap the foil, microwave it for 1 min, re wrap in foil, and but in my lunch bag. It is about 30 min from the time I warm it up until I get to eat it and it is still warm! 

3. Make dinner in the crock pot the night before. If you are like me you are gone to long during the day to make something in the crock pot. I have found that the best way to still use my crock pot is the put the dinner I need for the next night in when I get home. When I do this I am there when the food is done and I don’t have to take time to cook dinner. I pack it up and put it in the fridge then warm up what we need in the microwave the next night.

This is the sweet Crock Pot set my Dad and Step-mom got me when I had the baby! LOVE IT!!

I will blog more about how I do each of these things latter but this week has been crazy! What tips do you have that help you and your busy family get through the week with some sanity left at the end? Leave a comment and let us know. I am always looking for a way to make life simpler.

Remember to follow me on Pinterest. Check on the Meal Plan Favorites board to find the crock pot recipes I used this week and other recipes that we have in joyed. I will up date it as we try new meals that my family things are winners!

Busy Bag – Counting Eggs January 5, 2013

 

With Easter not that far off I thought it was a good time to post this busy bag. I got these eggs in the Dollar Spot at Target last Easter. These are the small ones so there are 18 total. All you have to do is us a sharpie to put the number on the bottom part of the egg and the corresponding number of dots on the top part. I chose to miss match to colors of the eggs so my 3 year old had to count and could not use the colors to help him. I love cheep learning tools!

Busy Bag Storage

I have seen many ways to store busy bags. In our family room we have a tall cabinet that has the kids toys in it. I keep a basket on top of the cabinet that has all of the buys bags for my 3 year old in it. When he get board he will just ask for the blue basket. If I think he needs something to keep him out of trouble I had him the blue basket. This is what works for us. How do you store your busy bags? Leave a comment and let use know. I would love to get some more ideas on how to store them. 

Pay-It-Forward Project on FB January 4, 2013

I am sure that you have seen this on Face Book but I challenge you to take part in it.  What a better way to make someones day.  Have not seen it yet????  Post it on your FB and get it started!!!

2013 Creative Pay-It-Forward Project: The first five people to comment on this status will receive from me, sometime in the next calendar year, a gift – perhaps a book, or baked goods, or a candle, music – a surprise! There will likely be no warning and it will happen whenever the mood strikes me. The catch? Those five people must make the same offer in their FB status.

I will blog about the gifts that I give as the year goes on. Happy Giving!

Box Tops For Education Storage January 3, 2013

At our house we keep or Box Tops For Education and Labels For Education to help support my daughters elementary. Having an easy way to store them until we send them to school was a challenge at first. I had box tops and labels all over the kitchen. I had made some containers that I had made that had worked well but I decided to improve on them. Having lots of formula containers around I decided to use the small sample size cans to make new storage for them.

I used a small knife to cut a slit in the top that the box tops and labels will fit in. Make sure that you test it the labels are much bigger then I thought.

I then covered the cans in Duct Tape and used some name labels that I had at the house to mark what goes in each container,

These are much nicer then what I was using before. I can stack them in the cabinet in my kitchen that I use as a command center. I keep the box tops on the top of the stack because I tend to have more of them.